Corruption costs Greece some 554 million euros every year, according to the first European Commission report on the phenomenon that was published on Monday.

A remarkable 99 percent of Greek respondents said corruption constitutes a widespread problem in the country, placing Greece top in the European Union chart, while the European Union average is at 76 percent. Over three in every five Greeks (63 percent) believes corruption affects their everyday lives against an EU average of 26 percent.

The report identifies five main fields where corruption is rife in Greece: They are the health sector, the funding of political parties, the justice system, which delays the processing of corruption cases, state contracts and the fragmentary handling of the phenomenon in Greece.

The report did find, however, that some important steps against corruption have been taken in the last two years.